Cheesy Garlic Bread Made from Pizza Dough

This delicious cheesy garlic bread recipe is made using Detroit-style pizza dough! The dough is no knead so it's super easy to make. While the recipe does need to rest in the refrigerator overnight, it's completely worth it - the result is ultra-cheesy and chewy homemade garlic bread that's the perfect accompaniment to any meal.

Hi hi! Just popping in to share the recipe for this Cheesy Garlic Bread! I tested and made this a bunch of times over the last few weeks, and I am just so excited to share the recipe with you. I love making delicious savoury bread recipes, and this cheesy garlic bread ticks all my boxes!

This Garlic Bread is the perfect accompaniment to any meal, and is especially good served alongside a lasagna or soup. It is perfectly cheesy and garlicky, and the dough is soft and chewy. The detroit style pizza dough has an overnight rest so you can prepare this ahead of time and have perfect homemade pizza dough garlic bread.

Detroit Style Pizza is a deep dish style pizza made in a square or rectangle baking pan. It generally has a thick layer of cheese that goes edge to edge in the pan, so when it bakes it has a crispy, cheesy crust. It is super easy to make and my no-knead garlic butter version comes together with very little effort. If you want to make individual garlic breads, my homemade garlic knots would be perfect for this!

Pizza dough garlic bread

This Cheesy Garlic Bread is made with a no knead Detroit Style Pizza Dough, which is a riff on my focaccia recipe. The dough has an overnight rise, then is left to rise again the next day. There are a few steps but the overall process is so worth it!

1. Make the dough. The no knead detroit style pizza dough is made the night before, then left to rise overnight in the fridge.
2. Turn the dough out into the pan. The dough gets turned out into an oiled pan, and is left to spread out. You dimple it outwards every 10-20 minutes.
3. Add the cheese. Chunks of cheese get dotted over the surface of the dough so that when it rises, it surrounds the cheese. This is what gives you melty pockets of cheese within the bread.
4. Leave to rise. The garlic bread goes through its rising process - this takes 3-4 hours so make sure that you account for it.
5. Bake. Once the dough is risen and puffy, pop it into the oven and bake until deep golden brown.
6. Add Garlic and Cheese. Once the bread has baked, top with garlic butter and sprinkle with the rest of the cheese, and return to the oven until the cheese has gone nice and melty.
7. Finish with Garlic Butter. Once the bread is done, finish with the rest of the garlic butter. You could also garnish with herbs such as parsley here! Slice into chunks and enjoy! I serve mine plain but you could also serve with some marinara sauce for dipping.

Adding cheese to pizza dough

This Cheesy Garlic Bread made with pizza dough has cheese added two ways - risen in the dough itself and grated on the top. Once the dough has been added to the pan, chunks of cheese are dotted over the dough. When the cheese is added to the dough, as the dough rises it rises around the chunks of the cheese.

The result of this is pizza dough that is studded with chunks of cheese throughout. I borrowed this idea from Peter Reinhart's Detroit Style Pizza book. The chunks of cheese throughout are melty and delicious and go so well with the garlic butter.

How to make No Knead Pizza Dough

The process of making no knead pizza dough is almost identical to my method of making my no knead focaccia. Garlic bread made from homemade dough is next level delicious. I dropped the hydration on my dough (this is 84% whereas my focaccia is about 89%. I also used all bread flour as opposed to a mixture of bread and All Purpose flour like I use in the focaccia recipe. Using a high protein flour gives a much stronger bread that is slightly chewier and perfect for making this cheesy garlic bread.

• Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl. If you are using active dry yeast, see the FAQ for this.
• Add in oil and water and mix until you get a shaggy dough.
• Leave to sit for 5 minutes - this lets the dough start to hydrate properly.
• Perform three sets of stretch and folds, each 2 minutes apart, to build strength.
• Shape the dough into a ball and place into an oiled container to rise.

How to stretch and fold bread dough

While the dough doesn't require kneading I do get you to do a series of turns of the dough to build strength before it is left to rise. Stretch and folds are a sourdough technique and are a quick way to help develop gluten in the dough.

In this recipe, you do three sets of stretch and folds, with each set consisting of 16 folds (four times around the bowl with a fold every 90 degrees) The sets of stretch and folds are spaced two minutes apart. As you stretch and fold, you will notice the dough starting to smooth out and develop strength. Here is how you perform one set of stretch and folds:

• Wet your hands and remove the cover from the bowl.
• Take a section of the dough and stretch it up and fold it onto itself.
• Rotate the bowl 90° and repeat the process. Repeat this two more times until you have gone around the bowl.
• Do three more rounds of stretch and folds around the bowl (so each set will have 16 stretch and folds, or four trips around the bowl)
• Rest the dough for 2 minutes.

If this seems confusing, just know that you are performing three sets of 16 stretch and folds, spaced two minutes apart.

How to rise garlic bread

Once the dough is spread out in the pan, it needs 3-4 hours to rise until it is puffy and jiggy. Make sure you account for this. The time also depends on your environment, so make sure you go by your dough and not the time.

If you want to speed up the dough rising slightly, you can create a humid warm environment. I like to do this in the oven - I place an oven pan on the bottom of the oven or the bottom shelf (with the oven off), and fill it with boiling water. This makes the inside of the oven nice and warm and steamy which is the perfect environment for rising your dough. Make sure you leave a note that there is dough in the oven so you don't turn it on by mistake!

If at any point you are worried things are moving too quickly and you are not ready to bake your bread yet, the fridge is your friend when you are working with a yeasted dough. Just pop the whole pan back into the fridge to slow down the rising process and buy yourself some more time.

The best cheese to use for Garlic Bread Using Pizza Dough

You can use whatever cheese you like for this cheesy garlic bread, but I would ideally go for something mild and melty. I used Havarti (I used Castello Brand) which comes in a 200g block, which was perfect for this as I grated half and did half in the chunks to rise in the dough.

You could use a mozzarella or a mild cheddar here, or mix it up with what you like! Something that is a little soft and will get nice and soft in the oven is great. You could also finish with a grating of parmesan cheese.

Sample Schedule for Garlic Bread

The great thing about this no knead detroit style pizza dough I use for this Cheesy garlic bread is that it is super versatile. It needs about 12 hours in the fridge to rise, but you can leave it up to a few days. Sometimes I make a double of the dough and pop it into two separate containers. Then I can just bring some out and bake off as needed.

It is best to make the dough at least the night before you make the garlic bread. I usually make the pizza dough the night before. Then I start the rising process 5 hours before I want to bake the garlic bread.

If you want to do two rises in the fridge this should work too. You will need to take the time to let the dough settle in the pan and then add the cheese and cover with plastic wrap. Leave on the counter for about half an hour to kick start the rising process. Then place into the fridge overnight. The next day, pull the dough out from the fridge and leave to stand on the counter while the oven preheats. It may need a little more time to come back to room temperature and finish rising. Make sure that it is puffy and jiggly.

Small Batch Garlic Bread

If you would like to small batch this cheesy garlic bread, it will work great! I tested this loads with my Focaccia recipe. If you like, you can halve the recipe and bake it in either a 9"(23cm) round pan or an 8" (20cm) square. You could also make a full batch of the no knead pizza dough and divide it in two (deli containers work great for this), and bake half off at a time as a small batch. You will need half the cheese and half the garlic butter quantities, and it may take a little less time to rise.

Best pan for Garlic Bread

For this recipe you must use a nonstick metal baking pan. Do not try and make this recipe with glass. Glass is a very poor conductor of heat and so I do not recommend it for this recipe. Glass can also stick very badly. The high heat needed for the baking will not work with a glass dish and you will have sticking issues.

Anything that is non stick and made of metal will work well. If you are worried about sticking, you can butter the pan before you grease it. You can also divide the dough into two and do two 9" (23cm) rounds or two 8" (20cm) squares at once (or one of each) if you don't have a 9"x13" pan.

Frequently Asked Questions

What tools and Equipment do you use?
You can see a full list of all the tools I use here

What is Bread Flour?
Bread flour is flour which is higher in protein. It is referred to as high grade or strong flour if you are outside of the US! If you can't get bread flour this recipe should also work with all-purpose flour. The crust will just be a little softer.

Can I use a baking stone or steel?
I didn't have one here but if you wanted to make sure you get a really crispy bottom on your garlic bread, you can preheat the oven with a baking stone or pizza steel in there. I use one whenever I can when I am making detroit style pizza and it makes a big difference!

Can Garlic bread be made ahead of time?
This garlic bread is best eaten hot from the oven, but if you need to, you could try making it ahead. To do this, you could bake it until it is nearly done, but hold off on adding the garlic butter and grated cheese. Then when you are ready to serve it, cover with foil, then pop it back into the oven to warm up, then bring out and add the garlic butter and cheese, then bake again as per the recipe and add more garlic butter. This should warm up the bread and give the cheese a chance to melt.

Can you freeze garlic bread?
I don't think this would freeze well sorry!

Can I use active dry yeast?

Yes - but you will need to activate it in the lukewarm water and sugar first for 5 minutes until it goes foamy, then proceed with the recipe.

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